Experts are full of valuable knowledge and are ready to help with any question. Credentials confirmed by a Fortune 500 verification firm.

Get a Professional Answer

Via email, text message, or notification as you wait on our site.Ask follow up questions if you need to.

100% Satisfaction Guarantee

Rate the answer you receive.

Ask Patrick, Esq. Your Own Question

Patrick, Esq., Lawyer

Category: Employment Law

Satisfied Customers: 12614

Experience: Significant experience in all areas of employment law.

60109343

Type Your Employment Law Question Here...

Patrick, Esq. is online now

I am a black female who was unfairly treated and removed from

Customer Question

I am a black female who was unfairly treated and removed from my current position. I was told that I was not removed because of my performance. My performance has been great on the project as told to me by my leadership and sponsorship. I was removed and a white male was added to the role. I was demoted to another project. Removing me from this current position will impact my career at this company. My career is dead at this company since this program was very visible. The perception from others is that I could handle the program. Even though this is not the case. Is it legal for this company to unjustly remove me from the role without cause and then add a white male who has less experience? I want to go to the EEOC but want to discuss my next steps with a lawyer. Please advise what my next steps should be?

Hello and thank you for entrusting me to assist you. My name is ***** ***** I will do everything I can to answer your question.I am very sorry to hear about your removal from this position. Do you have any specific reason to believe that you were removed from the position because you are black or because you are a female? If so, what is the reason?I very much look forward to helping you on this matter.

I believe a director who is responsible for sourcing the program got angry with me for a disagreement we had and she decided to remove me. She was one of the original people who assigned me to the position also. But because we had an argument about something on the program, she decided to use her influence with other high leadership to remove me and put one of her employees (a white male) on the program. She retaliated against me. I do not work for her. I work in a different organization. Again, I was told I performed well so I still do not know why I was demoted to another lesser project. I do not think this is fair treatment.

Thank you for your reply. I would agree that this sounds like extremely unfair treatment. However, it is not illegal to simply be "unfair." What is illegal is to take adverse employment action against someone because of a legally protected trait, such as race or gender. So, while it would be illegal to remove you from your position BECAUSE you are black or BECAUSE you are a woman, it is not illegal to remove you for an unrelated personal reason, even if that reason is unfair and even if your replacement happens to be of a different race and gender. So, I must be candid in telling you that you are not describing actionable conduct on the part of your employer unless you have specific evidence to suggest that you are being removed due to a prejudice about your race or your gender. Gender seems very unlikely since the director who removed you is also female. You have not stated anything to suggest that the decision was motivated by your race, and to be honest it would be very hard to argue that this woman hired you knowing you were black and then turned around and decided to remove you due to their racial prejudice. That same racial prejudice would have likely prevented you from getting hired in the first place. If you cannot prove that the motivation for removing you is a legally protected trait, this is not a circumstance in which you would have any recourse aside from complaining to HR and the director's manager. It is unfair and unfortunate, but it is the state of the law nonetheless, and I must be honest with you in answering your question. I hope that you find this information helpful and am genuinely sorry if it is not what you were hoping to hear. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the above and I will be more than happy to assist you further. If you do not require any further assistance, please be so kind as to provide a positive rating of my service so that I may receive credit for assisting you. Very best wishes moving forward.

So my career at this company is in essence over because this was a very visible program where a director decided to move me out and add a white male who has less experience to this role because she was mad. She wanted to move her own employee into the role because her organization was using to much overhead in the company and they needed some where to place these people. The problem is I was expendable. They ruined my career. This still does not seem like a fair employment action where I have no recourse. This company continually treats minorities unfair. Out of the 60 people on the program, there were only 2 black people. She tried to remove both of us from the program. She succeeded with me. The other one is just a matter of time, because that person works for her. So that is why I believe I am being discriminated against. She did not move to remove anyone but the 2 black females.

Thank you for your reply. I completely get your frustration. All I can do is explain the law, though, and the law says it is not illegal for an employer to change the terms of employment or even terminate employment for reasons that are unfair. This remains true even if the adverse employment action damages the employee's career. The only way that what you describe becomes illegal is if your employer's motivation is a legally protected trait, such as race. You mention that out of 60 people in the program there are only two black employees and that the company continually treats minorities unfairly. That would be evidence of a larger pattern or practice of discrimination which you could use to argue a discriminatory racial motive in your case. But you must establish that as the motive, and you must do so by a preponderance of the evidence, which is your burden as the plaintiff in a discrimination case. If you strongly believe that you were removed because of your race or gender, then your recourse is to file a complaint with the TWC Civil Rights Division. See here for more information: http://www.twc.state.tx.us/jobseekers/how-submit-employment-discrimination-complaint The TWC will investigate your complaint, and perhaps they will discover additional evidence of a racial or gender motive in the course of their investigation. In any case, they will attempt to mediate a resolution with your employer. If that is not forthcoming, you will be issued a "right to sue" letter which will then authorize you to file a lawsuit in civil court. I hope this clarifies things. Again, please feel free to let me know if you have any further concerns.

Hello again, I just wanted to followup with you to make sure that you did not have any further questions or concerns. For some unknown reason, the experts are not always getting replies or ratings (which is how we get paid for our work) that the customer thinks have gone through. In your case I have not yet received either. If you are having technical difficulties with reading, replying or rating, please let me know so that I can inform the site administrator. In any event, it was a pleasure assisting you and I would be glad to attempt to assist you further on this issue, or a new legal issue, if needed.Very best wishes.